With their second film, Shatara Michelle Ford (Test Pattern) puts their singular stamp on the American road movie. Dreams in Nightmares, which stars Denée Benton (The Gilded Age) and Jasmin Savoy Brown (Yellowjackets, Scream 7) follows a group of queer friends in their mid-30s navigating love, identity, and belonging across America. Anchored in themes of chosen family and self-discovery, the film blends humor and emotional depth against the backdrop of a journey through the Midwest and beyond. Dreams in Nightmares is an expansive and tender ode to the chosen family and to the radical act of claiming space to dream--and to exist--in an increasingly fraught country.

"It’s common to say a filmmaker is on the rise after their first or second film, but Ford is already there." —Brian Tallerico, Roger Ebert

"Ford’s collaborative methods give rise to performances of an extraordinary immediacy, a sense of commitment to the characters’ quests for sexual freedom, freedom from fear." —Richard Brody, The New Yorker

"A new spin on the American road trip movie, one that functions both as an intimate exploration of identity and a rallying cry for a new kind of world." —Kate Erbland, IndieWire

"An essential new voice in Black cinema." —Jourdain Searles, The Film Stage

100% - Rotten Tomatoes